• Who do the fans blame for the lockout? A new poll in Canada finds "55 percent blame the owners for the lengthy labor dispute. Twenty-six percent of those polled blame the players." The other 19 percent blame global warming. [Updated News]

• Scott Burnside believes that the CBA talks will come to define both Donald Fehr and Gary Bettman: "These are the moments that will define this labor dispute, will determine whether there is hockey and how much hockey. By extension, these moments will define the leadership of Fehr and Bettman. There is still enough time to play a meaningful number of games and try and get the game back on a track to prosperity." [ESPN]

• Tampa Bay Lightning forward B.J. Crombeen on the CBA talks: "It kind of seems like they're waiting around, waiting for something to happen rather than make it happen, and we feel like we're trying to make it happen, so hopefully it leads to something. They're talking. Whether it's spinning their wheels or not, they're talking, and maybe something will pop into their minds or something will get done. All you can do is try to stay positive." [Lightning Strikes]

• Eric Duhatschek suggests that the diehard fan, rather than the casual fan, will be at risk in a prolonged lockout: "Some are suggesting, in fan Internet forums, that this is it for them. They are so disgusted by a second lockout in eight years, they want to teach the whole sorry lot a lesson by finding something else to do when NHL play resumes." [Globe & Mail]

• Ellen Etchingham on Bobby Orr and Erik Karlsson: "It could be that Karlsson is far closer to playing like the ordinary, non-mythic Bobby Orr than either his supporters or his detractors suspect." [Backhand Shelf]

• Here is Y! Sports NHL writer Nick Cotsonika with a fantastic wrap-up on his European adventures, including: "Whenever the lockout ends, what then? The NHLers will go back to the NHL, and teams and leagues will be forced to adjust. That's why the Swedish Elite League did not want to sign NHLers to short-term contracts. That's why some individual clubs in different leagues have not signed NHLers to short-term contracts — or have been wary of signing too many." [Y! Sports]

• Darren Helm on his gross injury, still healing up: "They said there's a bunch of little pieces of my orbital bone floating around in my cheek,'' Helm said. "They said it'll kind of come together on its own. It's not one of the major bones that, if it broke, I would need surgery. It's the smaller, they said, paper-thin bones." [Mlive.com]

• Interesting piece on whether the New York Islanders' move to Brooklyn is a harbinger of doom for the suburbs. [The Atlantic, via Wayne Brown]